Voices of CMB: The Chadwick Martin Bailey Research Blog

There has been lots of talk in the industry about cloud computing for some time now. At the end of 09’ we checked in with our IT decision maker panel to get their perspective on cloud computing and where it fits into their IT plans. At that time, two-thirds of them were already using “cloud computing” in some capacity to lower costs or increase scale and flexibility. Deployment seemed to be more horizontally focused on non-core application workloads. But we saw signs that 2010 would be the year cloud computing would gain some serious momentum—many just needed some proof of concept and now Microsoft and eBay are teaming up to deliver just that.

Microsoft is claiming their stake in the cloud by announcing at last week’s developer conference that their long anticipated Windows Azure appliance was ready, making good on their promise to offer preconfigured datacenter containers directed at large enterprises who can’t have their data hosted off site.

Microsoft also announced that eBay will be one of the first customers to put Azure to the test as they announced a joint cloud computing agreement. This agreement comes on the heels of a successful deployment program which allows eBay the flexibility to put some applications on the pubic cloud. For example http://ipad.ebay.com— is hosted on the public Windows Azure platform.

Where there was once a lot of confusion there now seems to be more traction—particularly for private cloud computing. In a space that has a lot of competition, Microsoft is working hard to get a head start out of the gate. And this agreement with eBay is certainly a big feather in their cap.

Stay tuned as we are going back to our IT decision maker panel this month to gain new insights on what enterprise end-users require of vendors offering cloud computing solutions.

We would love to hear from you. Does this agreement between Microsoft and eBay give you the proof of concept you need?

Chris Neal leads CMB’s Tech Practice. He enjoys spending time with his two kids and rock climbing.

Through the years and two kids later we certainly have accumulated a lot of "stuff" around our house. Apparently I'm not alone! We recently worked with Kijiji.com, eBay's free online classifieds to conduct research with an online sample of over 1000 US consumers. We asked these consumers what happens to all the duplicate items when couples move in together. After all you don't need two toasters! For many the basement or attic starts to fill.

Some of what we learned:

54% of Americans admit to having up to 10 duplicate items when they moved in with a significant other

Each time we have moved through the years I make a concerted effort (often unbeknownst to my husband and kids) to reduce our "clutter footprint," but I never thought of profiting from my "junk." As the old adage goes "one person's trash is another's treasure!"

I'm a big fan of sites like Kijiji.com for both buying and selling, and not just because they are a client. Online classifieds are a great way to sell those bigger items that can't be shipped easily and I need out of the house. Not too long ago I posted my double jogger stroller to an online classifieds site in the morning and a mom from the next town over was at my house by 3:45 with $100 cash!

As a consumer, are you thinking about non-traditional places to sell the stuff you don't need and save some money buying what you do want? As a business, are you thinking about ALL of the potential sales channels for your product?

As reported on Boston's CBS News, we did some recent consumer market research on what people do with unwanted gifts and found that 59% of people simply kept them around instead of returning them for credit, selling them through online sites like eBay's Kijiji or Craigslist.